LONDON, July 21 – Two gay teenagers were publicly executed in Iran on 19
July 2005 for the ‘crime’ of homosexuality. The youths were hanged in
Edalat (Justice) Square in the city of Mashhad, in north east Iran. They
were sentenced to death by Court No. 19.

Iran enforces Islamic Sharia law, which dictates the death penalty for gay
sex.

One youth was aged 18 and the other was a minor under the age of 18. They
were only identified by their initials, M.A. and A.M.

They admitted – probably under torture, London-based gay human rights group
Outrage! suggests – to having gay sex but claimed in their defence that
most young boys had sex with each other and that they were not aware that
homosexuality was punishable by death.

Prior to their execution, the teenagers were held in prison for 14 months
and severely beaten with 228 lashes.

Their length of detention suggests that they committed the so-called
offences more than a year earlier, when they were possibly around the age of
16.

Ruhollah Rezazadeh, the lawyer of the youngest boy (under 18), had appealed
that he was too young to be executed and that the court should take into
account his young age (believed to be 16 or 17). But the Supreme Court in
Tehran ordered him to be hanged.

Under the Iranian penal code, girls as young as nine and boys as young as 15
can be hanged.

Three other young gay Iranians are being hunted by the police, but they have
gone into hiding and cannot be found. If caught, they will also face
execution.

News of the two executions was reported by ISNA (Iranian Students News
Agency) on 19 July.

A later news story by Iran In Focus, allegedly based on this original ISNA
report, claimed the youths were executed for sexually assaulting a 13 year
old boy. But the ISNA report does not mention any sexual assault.

A report of the executions on the website of the respected democratic
opposition movement, The National Council of Resistance Of Iran, also makes
no reference to a sexual assault.

The allegation of sexual assault may either be a trumped up charge to
undermine public sympathy for the youths, a frequent tactic by the Islamist
regime in Iran.

Or, Outrage! suggests, it may be that the 13 year old was a willing
participant but that Iranian law (like UK law) deems that no person of that
age is capable of sexual consent and that therefore any sexual contact is
automatically deemed in law to be a sex assault.

If the 13 year old was sexually assaulted, why was he not identified and
also put on trial (under Iranian law both the victims and perpetrators of
sexual crimes are punished)?

“This is just the latest barbarity by the Islamo-fascists in Iran,” said
Peter Tatchell of the London-based gay human rights group OutRage!

“The entire country is a gigantic prison, with Islamic rule sustained by
detention without trial, torture and state-sanctioned murder.

“According to Iranian human rights campaigners, over 4,000 lesbians and gay
men have been executed since the Ayatollahs seized power in 1979.

“Altogether, an estimated 100,000 Iranians have been put to death over the
last 26 years of clerical rule. The victims include women who have sex
outside of marriage and political opponents of the Islamist government.

“Last August, a 16 year old girl, Atefeh Rajabi, was hanged for ‘acts
incompatible with chasity.’

“Britain’s Labour government is pursuing friendly relations with this
murderous regime, including aid and trade. We urge the international
community to treat Iran as a pariah state, break off diplomatic relations,
impose trade sanctions and give practical support to the democratic and left
opposition inside Iran,” said Tatchell.

Outrage! Is calling for world-wide urgent action and asks that you protest
to the Iranian Ambassador at the Embassy in your country. In addition,
Outrage! asks that you also press your government to take urgent action
against Iran.

■ Last week in Nigeria, Yusuf Kabir (40) and 18-year-old Usman Sani appeared
before Judge Mustapha Sani Saulawa at Katsina’s Sharia Court Number Three
charged with committing sodomy.
The hearing was adjourned until early
August. If convicted, the pair could face death by stoning.

Earlier this month, Reuters reported from Nigeria that a
50 years-old man had been sentenced to
death by stoning after admitting to a judge that he had had homosexual sex.
This was immediately after the court had found him not guilty of having sex
with a teenage boy.

22:00 (UK) update from PageOneQ.comIranian Government-In-Exile Condemns Executions of
Boys. The Foreign Affairs
Committee of the National Council of Resistance of Iran issued the following
statement regarding the execution of the tw young men in Iran: In Iran
mullahs' henchmen publicly hanged two young boys in Edalat (Justice) Square
in MashhadIn shocking crime, mullahs’ henchmen hang an 18-year-old, and a
juvenile 18 years of age Iranian Resistance urges EU to cut off all dialogue
with the religious fascism ruling Iran.

22:00 (UK) July 22:
Condoleezza Rice Urged to
Condemn Execution of Gay Iranian Teens. The Human Rights
Campaign sent a letter today to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice asking
her to condemn the recent execution of two gay teens in Iran as well as
other horrific human rights abuses against gay, lesbian, bisexual and
transgender people across the globe.

23:00 (UK) July 26:
Despite
Executions, There Is Hope For Gays in Iran. Gay Iranians speak
from inside Iran to
Nikolai Alekseev, head of GayRussia.ru, about life in their country in
the wake of the horrific execution of two gay teens last week. [This
is a "reposting" of the GayRussia.ru originally published yesterday]

Mahmoud Asgari and Ayaz Marhoni were publicly executed by hanging last week
in Mashhad, north east Iran on, July 19.

19:00 (UK) August 1:
Gay Media's Failure to Accurately Report Adds to
Growing Hatred Towards Islamic World. Op-Ed by Faisal Alam. In the wake of the
recent London bombings, the Western world has been propelled into another
vicious cycle of revenge against Muslims and the Islamic world. While
mainstream media around the world have more accurately represented the
outpouring of condemnation by Muslim organizations and institutions against
the attacks in London, the gay and lesbian media in the U.S. has
unfortunately succumbed once again to the false belief that Islam condones
acts of violence including suicide bombings, executions of civilians and
even the killing of homosexuals.